


Listening

by JimmyPenguin421



Series: Happy Endings [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Barriss Offee Needs a Hug, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Fix-It, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Pre-Episode: s05e20 The Wrong Jedi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:21:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24042778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JimmyPenguin421/pseuds/JimmyPenguin421
Summary: When Barriss had a bad dream, she couldn't have known how it would affect the future.
Relationships: Barriss Offee & Ahsoka Tano, Barriss Offee & Luminara Unduli
Series: Happy Endings [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1858375
Comments: 14
Kudos: 59





	Listening

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

_Her mind screamed_ no _but her body wouldn’t listen._

_She brought her blade down. It clashed against another, the attack easily blocked. She raised her lightsaber again and swung again at her target._

_At Ahsoka._

_As Barriss watched, unable to control her own body, her lightsaber grazed Ahsoka’s arm, leaving a wound that quickly sealed thanks to the heat of the blade._

_Ahsoka hissed in pain. She threw out her hand, sending Barriss flying back into a wall with the Force._

_She walked up to Barriss, who was limp against the wall._

_Barriss’s body scrambled to stand, escape, do something._

_“I’m sorry, Barriss,” Ahsoka said, “but this is for the best.” She raised her lightsaber and brought it down—_

Barriss sat up, gasping for breath.

She looked around. She was in her quarters. There was the dresser, her lightsaber laid carefully on top. And the closet… and that was about it.

With a whimper, Barriss curled in on herself.

_Hiss._

The door.

“Barriss?” came a soft call.

Luminara.

Barriss swallowed. “Yes, Master?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh… nothing, Master. I’m all right. My apologies for disturbing you.” Barriss lay back down and pulled her blankets up to her nose. “Good night.”

No response. But Luminara didn’t leave.

“I can sense your emotions, Barriss,” Luminara said. “Please, talk to me.”

“Master, really, it’s nothing.”

Luminara came over to sit on the edge of the bed.

“Tell me?” she asked softly.

She couldn’t talk, talking would only make it _worse._

“Please?”

Barriss didn’t reply.

“Was it about Geonosis?”

Despite her master sitting right there and the fact that Jedi weren’t supposed to have emotions, a few silent tears escaped Barriss’s eyes. She rolled over so Luminara wouldn’t see. “Jedi don’t have nightmares, Master,” she said.

“I never said you did.”

Barriss sniffled.

“Barriss.”

A gentle hand took Barriss’s shoulder and rolled her back to face Luminara.

“Everyone has bad dreams. Even Jedi,” Luminara whispered. “It’s all right, Barriss.”

Barriss tried to hold them back, but more tears came.

“I tried to… kill…” She coughed on her sobs. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see Luminara’s reaction to her complete lack of emotional control.

Barriss heard Luminara sigh. She squeezed her eyes shut tighter, trying to shield herself from the disappointment that she knew was coming.

Then she felt… a hand on the side of her head?

Was that a finger brushing the tears away?

“Shh.”

Barriss opened her eyes.

Luminara’s face showed concern and a thousand other emotions Barriss couldn’t identify. But as Barriss looked up, Luminara smiled down at her.

“That was not you, Barriss. I don’t blame you. Ahsoka doesn’t blame you. Nobody does,” she said softly, stroking Barriss’s hair. “Shh, it’s all right.”

Her master _understood._

Her master _cared._

Barriss began crying again, but this time from relief.

She closed her eyes again and leaned into Luminara’s touch, taking comfort from the sensation of Luminara’s fingers gently running through her hair.

“Do you know that you can always talk to me, Barriss?” Luminara asked, cupping her cheek. “About anything.”

Barriss didn’t say anything. She just gave her master a watery smile.

And Luminara smiled back.

* * *

_Three years later_

Barriss threw herself down on her bed with a groan.

She had just returned from the Council chambers. She had tried to explain (in the most respectful way possible) that the Jedi were being corrupted by the war, that maybe they should consider doing something different, that maybe, just _maybe_ the war was their fault in the first place.

They hadn’t listened.

They never did.

But as Barriss lay there, face-down, struggling to breathe through her pillow, she remembered someone who _would_ listen, who had promised to _always_ listen.

She rolled over and sat up. Picked up her comlink. Dialed.

“Master?” Deep breath. “Can you meet me at the gardens? I need to talk to you.”

**Author's Note:**

> I just had this idea and it wouldn't go away, so here we are.  
> I know Luminara and perhaps Barriss are a bit OOC. But in my opinion, Jedi are not so much told to not have feelings as they are told to control them. So I took some liberty.  
> As always, any feedback is welcome!


End file.
